The very long awaited part 1!

I've just found time to do this, so you may have to excuse a few lapses in my memory of my summer holidays!

DAY 1 - Tuesday 16th August 2005.

Drove 200 miles (give or take a few) from Nottingham to my mum's house near Lampeter in West Wales. This would have been perfectly fine, but we took my 2CV for my brother to fix, so the journey was slow, and kinda bouncy. We had hoped to look at Raglan Castle on the way, but missed the last entry. I was really quite tired by the time we got there, as this was the furthest I had ever driven in one go, and I'd got quite fed up of Adam removing my gearnob and indicator switch, and generally getting his head in the way of my mirrors.

DAY 2 - Wednesday 17th August 2005.
Mum and Dad gave us a lift to the start at St Dogmael's, where we wandered around the abbey and had lunch at a fantastic pub overlooking fishermen on the river Teifi (incidentally, the same river that flows through Lampeter, but an awful lot bigger here!). Photos were duly taken at the start, and goodbyes said. Little did my parents know that at the time I was trying not to die under the weight of my rucksack! I tried to hold off the sweating and panting and complaining till my parents were out of sight around the first corner. I very soon decided that this was going to be a lot harder work than I'd thought it would be!
This is us at the start point, taking a break after having lugged our packs all the way from the car. The first mile and a half follows the road (as seen in the picture) to Poppit Sands, where we spent quite a long time sitting on the sand dunes eating ice creams.

This is Poppit Sands, from here there were fantastic views across the estuary as the road (gradually diminishing into a gravel track) climbed to over 130 metres. It was a very hot day, and wonderfully clear. We reached our destination, Allt-y-coed campsite in good time to put up our tent in full daylight (one of the only days this happened, as it turned out!).


From my diary: Walked 3 miles from St Dogmael's to Allt-y-coed campsite. Am totally exhausted! Had a lovely lunch with mum and dad at the Ferry Inn in St Dogmael's. Adam twatted himself on a low doorframe at Poppit Sands, where we had an icecream. Just about made it to the campsite without boiling to death. Tried dehydrated food. Think Adam may have mixed the food up with his athlete's foot lotion. Campsite is ok, but on a bit of a slope - the gas stove fell over. Interested to see if I live through tomorrow.

Miles today: 3
Total mileage: 3!

My Summer

Hey y'all,

Finally got around to posting, hooray!
Thought I'd tell you a bit about what I've been up to over the summer.

The only exciting thing I did really, (apart from working for Standby, of course) was walking the Pembrokeshire Coast Path with Adam. For those of you that don't know, the coast path is a 186 mile long path stretching around the south-west tip of Wales. My grandmother was born and brought up in St. David's, and still has a house there, so I'd already done a small part of the path when staying there. I'd decided I wanted to do the whole lot when I was about 14, but had never found anyone crazy enough to go with me, until now...

For some reason, Adam agreed (nutter!), so, after some preparation, but not nearly enough, on Tuesday 16th August 2005, we set off.

The plan is that I shall give you little installments of our escapades, including diary entries, photos, and as much of what we got up to as I can remember, and I'm sure (cough) it'll be thrilling.

Part 1 coming soon...

Cow. x

PS Happy belated birthday to Rob, who was 26 on Tuesday. You old fogey, you. x

You've found me.

You catch my hand when I'm falling and drag me up.

You help me to feel the things I've forgotten how to feel.

I'm alive because you're there when I'm feeling this way.

But I need repair.

I feel lost.

I can feel myself falling into sadness and don't know how to stop.

I wish I could remember how it feels not to want to die.

But I am afraid I wouldn't be me if I didn't feel this way.

Why am I so broken?

Give me life
Give me pain
Give me my self again

Much Stuff

Hi! I'm still alive!

Having given lots of people my blog address, I thought I should bloody well update it.

I've been up to lots of things, not suprisingly, considering how long it's been since I last posted. I've finished my first year of uni, and although I've not had my grades yet, I'm confident that I've at least passed. I can't believe I've done a year already, it's gone so fast! And although I've moaned about a few things (like that bloody panto, grrr!) , it's been one of the best and most rewarding years of my life. I can't help myself, I love learning! And I'll be doing a Jane Austen module next year that I'm just so excited about... what a sad fucker I am!

What else? I'm still working at a popular supermarket chain, and I still loathe and detest every moment.

I went on holiday with Adam to the Brecon Beacons for four days, and had a wicked time. We climbed Pen Y Fan, the highest peak in south Wales. Here is the view from the summit to the North:

And this is Pen Y Fan from where we parked the car:

Th weather was a bit crap on a couple of days, so on one of these I took him home to meet Aneirin and the folks, which wasn't as scary as it could have been. We drove back to the campsite in Brecon over the mountains (past Llyn Brianne), and I thought I'd include these pictures, as Adam was so very proud of the achievements of his car!

What a beautiful country I am from... even the bits that aren't national park, as these last two pictures show. (But as Adam said, 'they hardly need protecting, nobody lives here!')

I went to a school reunion this weekend, but I think that deserves a post all to itself, which I shall get around to as soon as I can, but for the moment, I have to go to work. Grunt.

Latery, Cows. xxx

PS Hello to any new readers I've gained from the reunion! I love you all!

PPS My parents have finally got around to informing me that they are getting divorced, having already signed the papers. Marvelous. And they decided at Easter, so thanks for keeping Owen and I informed.

22/22

Hello, y'all!

I'm slightly tipsy, and for some reason think it's a good idea to update my blog... thinking this might not be a totally good thing, but hey!

I realised today that as an average, for every year of my life, I've pulled one guy... 22 in total (I think, but may have forgotten a few!).

Now, this strikes me as being a lot.

So, I've been wondering what it is about me that makes me feel that I need to pull; that makes me see every guy as a challenge...

I can't really say what it is about me, as I suppose it's really who I am... Although the 'slapper' character seems to follow me around, I think I inflict it upon myself more than anyone else does. I rather like her - she's sexy and outgoing, and can have any man she wants if she tries hard enough. And although she can get many men to want to fuck her, she does much less well at persuading them to fall in love with her. After all, she's shallow, arrogant and is highly likely to cheat.
But sometimes a guy can see through the mask, and can learn to love what they find, as Michael did. But sometimes they're just suprised to find that their girlfriend is actually quiet, shy, usually unhappy, and very much dislikes her body, her looks and the way she acts around men. She only seeks their attention to ease her insecurities...
Whenever she's with a guy, she's always astounded to find that he doesn't find her as repulsive as she feels she is.

Perhaps I love my alter-ego, perhaps I hate her... But the truth is simple: without her I am an empty shell... I am nothing.

I didn't intend to write this.

I'm not sure what my point is... Perhaps I'm just trying to explain my behaviour to myself... Perhaps it's just a plea for Adam to stop calling me a 'sack of jelly'!

Who knows!

Night night. x

PS Too much wine and not enough sex make Cow a crazy moo.

Wetness!

It has been a time of much wetness recently.

First, our shower leaked into our living-room a lot. Taking chunks of the ceiling with it. Oh dear. Our landlord has replaced what was a fantastically powerful shower with a pretty weedy one, which is rather like standing under a tap.

Second, the outlet pipe of our £9.50 dishwasher ended up squished under the machine, causing water to flood the kitchen. Oh dear.

Third, results from Uni have not been too good this semester. My grades seem to be getting gradually worse (in order, A-, A, A, A+, B, B, C-, B). I got the panto grade on Friday, that's the C-, and cried in front of my entire class. (Muchly embarrassing) I was kinda hoping that the fact that I'd done over a 100 hours of work on it might up my grade slightly, but apparently not. I didn't even get the highest mark in my group! Seems odd that I get an A+ for about 4 hours work, and a C- for over a 100! Perhaps I actually can't act... At least I passed, so I don't have to do it again!

Fourth, Adam's back from his travels!

That's all the wetness I can think of. Apart from the weather. Ta ta for now.

PS Huge hugs to Owen. I can't think of anyone who deserves to be happy more.